University of Chicago professor's research on former inmates earns MacArthur 'genius' grant
CHICAGO (CBS) – A felon in Illinois can't even host a game of bingo. That's just one of the laws on the state's books that affect people leaving prison.
A Chicago researcher is looking for solutions to the ways society cares for convicts. CBS 2's Lauren Victory told us about how his big project just got a huge boost.
Life on the inside means missing celebrations, but getting out is no party, as evidenced by the decades-long analysis of University of Chicago sociologist Reuben Jonathan Miller.
"I follow people that nobody cares about," Miller said.
His life's work documents 250 inmates from the day of their release to the weeks, months and years of barriers hit afterwards. Miller is also a research professor at the American Bar Foundation.
"The prison follows you," he said. "It's like a ghost. It shows up in the welfare office. It shows up in the unemployment line."
His on-going research takes time and money, which explains this response:
"Just 10 minutes of 'Ooooh!'" he said.
That was Miller's reaction to being named a MacArthur Foundation fellow. He was awarded $800,000 over five years.
Miller plans to use a good chunk of the money to travel along old slave routes. He's curious how incarceration today is affected by the past, how different countries handled emancipation.
"When they're faced with the problem of free Black people and the loss of a giant part of their economy, why didn't they go the route of punishment which leads to mass incarceration?" Miller said. "And what led us to do that?"
Marlon Chamberlain, who said he was denied opportunities because of a 20-year-old conviction, will be paying attention to whatever Miller comes up with using his grant money.
"We believe that a criminal record shouldn't follow anyone for life," Chamberlain said. "There has to be a point when that sentence ends."
Chamberlain is a formerly incarcerated activist with the Fully Free campaign. He's working to end thousands of laws, policies and administrative sanctions that prevent people with convictions from moving on and up.
"Reuben's research informs our work," Chamberlain said. "And it also helps our work because it helps us make a case."
Miller added, "Marlon and folks like Marlon are key to the kind of world I'd like to see."
It's a world that's more just after justice is served.